DL Nelson is an American-born Swiss writer and journalist. Visit her website www.donnalanenelson.com

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

As a writer

One of the first things we learn is to use said or asked or even better tie the statement to an action to identify a speaker after a piece of dialogue.

New writers are usually identified when they have people exclaiming, declaring, yelling, whispering, stating, laughing, told, accounted, recounted, etc.

I'm now reading a book where the author does the same thing with the way people move. No one walked. They skittered, strutted, scuttled, strolled, (she obviously also has an s obsession) marched, glided, ambled. It was over done and so much so that it stood out the same way overdone speech attributions do.